Limerock Mountain, Early Hours of Saturday Morning
As usual RL gets in the way of the writing of the race report. I think that Limerock, in either of its forms, is one of those tracks that you love or hate; settle comfortably into or always have a fight at. Unfortunately, I always seem to be in the latter category.
I’d struggled in practice here in the Leon to get into the 1:40’s let alone the 1:39’s or 38’s. I found that to get any speed, the rear had to be loose, which for me meant inconsistent. Even though Motec had me well into the 1:39’s on split times, on a whole lap, I couldn’t come close. Still really struggled with smoothness through the Esses
Practice
I took time to ride along with some of the front runners just to compare where I was losing time. Even with proper gearing, the Leon seemed to run out of steam (no torque) on the uphill turns, kind of critical on this track. So switched to the Honda and downloaded a set up (thanks Michael V), manage to get into the 1:40’s so stuck with it. If there hadn’t been an online set-up, I’d have stepped back into the Leon. Even in the Honda I was still struggling to be comfortable through the Esses. Time for practice ran out and I decided to stay in the Honda. I won’t stick with it for ATCC as the Leon will be more consistent for me on most of the tracks that we are running.
Qualifying
In big, high quality, field like this, my best hope was to qualify up near 20th at a track I'm uncomfortable with. Unfortunately, I made the fatal mistake of braking a tad too late into the fast sweeping, downhill, right hander and ran wide. Other than that, the rest of the lap was neat, if eventually slow. Ah Well, get back on it and see if I can manage to beat John S’s 1:45. Qualified 28th, in front of John. With the rolling start procedure, I knew that I’d struggle to make to many places off the start and would hve to avoid any incidents, by myself or others to make up ground.
Race 1
The less said about race 1 the better, but I will anyway. OK at the start and managed to avoid any of the mayhem and run off and those rejoining. Unlike previous races where I tried to run long to keep the front and rear tyres in balance for as long as possible, I had decided on an early pit strategy where the tyres weren’t too worn on the rear so it would remain balanced for the rest of the race (if slightly looser at the rear). For that to work and for me to keep the places that I’d gained through attrition (even 4 laps in) I’d need to nail my in lap; not so! Off at the fast sweeping, downhill, right hander; off at the Esses and a bizarre spin just coming out from under the “Mohegan Sun” Bridge. Slid straight across the inside of the downhill to and just collected it as I run onto the track, Sry for whoever else was pitting at the time. Ran into the pits and continued to press the clutch instead of the brake to stop in my pit stall. It goes without saying that that brought with it a S’n’g. Even after that, I managed to keep ahead of the leaders until lap 12. Once they’re starting to pass you it’s a case of moving out of the way at the right time. The top of the mountain isn’t the place for that. As soon as you move off line and miss the corners, then you risk losing what few places that you’ve managed to collect. Despite the, self inflicted carnage, I still managed to run home 22nd, up 6 places from qualifying.
Race 2
Standing Start. Great start and up 6 places by the first turn. Again, I avoided any of the carnage that happened (although there didn’t appear to be much) and ran clean. I was running neatly behind Danny Asbury in the BMW, so time now for me to take another try at the early pit strategy and. Pass the pit entrance at the beginning of lap 5, press the pit in button. All of a sudden, I see in the distance a flying Eric Estes, Somehow (Eric's report for details), he’d managed to hit the cones of death on the inside of the straight (just here it turns into big bend on the standard track). The time was close to make a decision which way to go as he slid across the track. Danny went left so I followed. Danny makes it through, just but I don’t. Damn (there are may other words that also occurred to me at the time, all of which would make a Docker blush), I thought, another DNF. The car was badly damaged suspension, aero and two front punctures. It’s a miracle why the car was still running as in (virtual) reality it should have been totalled. Apologies to those that got caught up in my rescue lap, you can imagine just how tricky it was to drive for almost a whole lap with no aero and two flat fronts. Fortunately, once I got there, the pit crew were ready and changed the tyres in double quick time. I am now back in the race. Top speed at the end of the main straight was down to 144mph from 152-153. No S’N’G this time and I had a good fight for a couple of laps with Ethan Bass (good to see another Scot running late) toward the end of the race. Once he had passed me, I’d settled in to be 27th and trying to minimise my impact on the front runners (see my comments above about the top) of the mountain. On our last but one lap, Ethan hit the beach at the hairpin allowing me to get back past him. On the final lap, TS proved invaluable again as the close running Abdul and Rhys, who had both just passed me on the main straight. made contact leaving Abdul in the middle of the track just off the fast sweeping, downhill, right hander. This fore warning let me take avoiding action. Finished 26th, and disappointed. But hey, up from Qualifying in both races.
On to Germany (if I get in that is!)
![Luca [OT]](https://overtake-data.community.forum/avatars/s/3235/3235113.jpg?1697196734){kind=avatar}
